Press-wary Neil Young opens up to promote his project `Greendale'.(The Orange County Register)

Byline: Ben Wener

Me: "You've been critical of the media for a long time, and `Greendale' reinforces that. So why are you doing this?"

Neil Young: "This is the only way I have to get this thing out there. I can't count on radio, which I used to count on when I did a project. I'd put it out, radio would play it, people would find out. But radio has changed so much. And I've gone, you know, wherever I've gone. That's not open to me."

Young, as you may realize, rarely grants interviews. He's long been a member of that small club of rock legends _ Dylan, McCartney, Townshend, any of the Rolling Stones _ who have no reason to speak to writers who, more often than not, don't want to talk about their latest work anyway. They'd rather rehash past glories, something rock legends generally loathe.

So imagine my surprise (and suspicion) when I got a call from one of his publicists asking if I wanted to speak to Young about his new film "Greendale" _ and only his new film "Greendale," I was kindly warned, though I figured that ...